Well after doing crossfit now for almost 3 months I have finally come to grips with the fact that I "used to be a good athlete". Before these three months I haven't really worked out much more than a hand full of times in almost 8 years.

Where I once pushed through the pain and kept going. I now find myself quiting too early and finishing workouts disapointed that I could have gone harder. Yet when I come to my next workout nothing really changes. Mentally I am thinking I need to take it easy on this exercise because if I go to hard I will never get through the next exercise/ round.

My answer to this would be a question - "Are you still making progress?"

No? Yeah, you might be in a funk and need to learn how to push harder, or learn to vary up your intensity so you can improve over the long haul.

Yes? What's the problem? If you're training hard enough to show improvement over the short, medium, and long haul then it doesn't matter if you've gone all-out and pushed through some barrier of pain and discomfort if you've pushed enough to get better.

There is a pretty frequently discussed topic related to this - going all out vs. pacing, and varying intensity. You can find those discussions here and on the Crossfit boards pretty easily. I'd check them out - it'll be food for thought about your own situation.

Peter,
Thank you for your response. Am I making progress? Not sure, as far as weight loss is concerned I haven't dropped any more weight from my initial 10 lbs, I probably still need to drop another 10 - 15.
Performance wise is difficult to measure, I haven't really repeated any workouts yet. How else can I measure my performance?

Get stronger. More heavy lifting, less metcon. Read about hybrid training and you'll improve.

Garrett, I'd like to. I know that CFSB (a hybrid) says that its for intermediate to advanced lifters. Is this valid, I would still probably consider myself a bigger when it comes to any type of metcon.

I think that is kind of Dr G's point. Some of the people who go straight into Crossfit struggle with performance mainly because they don't have a sufficient enough strength base to complete the workouts as prescribed at a high intensity. One of the guys I am working with who was completely detrained, started with a real basic SS approach then we added in short met-cons and just recently after 6 months have added in met-cons of up to 20 minutes. We still prefer the shorter met-cons but will throw in the longer ones when appropriate.

When I started Crossfit years ago I was just blown away by the workouts and couldn't imagine ever being able to complete them as RX'ed. I made progress but it wasn't until I started a linear strength and O/Lifting program (see the CA WOD) that I begin to make any true progress as far as the main Crossfit workouts.

Main thing I would recommend is to have a definite goal whether that is weight loss, strength or performance on the core WOD's from Crossfit. That is the only way to judge if you are improving. If you look at the training logs on here most everyone sets their goals for the year, then shorter term and constantly redefines them based on current situations and life factors.

Above all have fun and enjoy it. If you aren't enjoying it the workout whatever it is isn't doing you any good.

__________________
What we think, or what we know, or what we believe, is in the end, of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do. -John Ruskin

Garrett, I'd like to. I know that CFSB (a hybrid) says that its for intermediate to advanced lifters. Is this valid, I would still probably consider myself a bigger when it comes to any type of metcon.

I will caveat by saying I'm an average lifter without an abundance of talent for this stuff. I don't do "crossfit".

But, I've made a lot of mistakes and have observed that only way to for a strength athlete to progress ( an yes, I'm loosely affiliating crossfit with strength athletics) is to work a semi focused program of bringing up weaknesses.
Sounds like you've been doing the WOD and lots of extra stuff and you need to retune and simplify a little.

My read of the stuff Gant does and the other hybrid programs like Rut's progressions is that it's about doing Less, not More adn cuttign out anythign nonessetial. Smart core instead of hardcore. It's seems absolutely perfect for a rank beginner. You don't need a ton of expereince do fewer number of things really well. In fact that's exactly what you need. Hell that's what we all need.